March 2015 – FROZBROZ

March 25, 2015

Chicken and Waffles

Seriously, we’re doing this. It has been a long time coming, but we finally stepped up and made this thing happen. Fried chicken, waffles, maple syrup, brown butter and ice cream? Hell yes! If you’ve ever ordered chicken and waffles at a restaurant, you couldn’t tell me that it all wouldn’t be better with a scoop of ice cream on top. And instead of putting the ice cream on top, this week we’re going to break it down and put it all in the ice cream. So come on, let’s do this Chicken and Waffles Frozbroz style.

First thing we’re going to work on is the ice cream base. I contemplated swirling maple syrup right into the ice cream for this one, but I wanted that maple flavor prevailing throughout, so I decided to use maple sugar as a sweetner for the base. Also, wanted to try and deepen the maple flavor with some caramel tones, so I went with a half and half mix of maple sugar and brown sugar. Question: would waffles be complete without butter? No, they wouldn’t. That’s the answer. Not just butter though, because plain butter tends to get lost in ice cream, so I’m going with it’s much more flavorful iteration; brown butter. This will also bring extra depth to the ice cream base adding a nutty component. Once the ice cream base is pasteurized, it’s cooled and ready to churn.

Next, we’re preppin the fried chicken. Well, fried chicken skin anyway. This has always been our hesitation with this flavor, for how it will hold up in the ice cream. I wanted an ultra crispy skin, and after a little research, I decided to use a technique used by chef Matthias Merges of Yusho in Chicago. These are skins from the chicken thigh. They’re laid out on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and salted. Another piece of parchment is placed over the top, and then sandwiched with another sheet pan. Into the oven and drained on paper towels, these are incredibly crispy salted chicken skins. They’re amazing actually! We chop them up, and they go into the ice cream at the end of the churn. It turns out that they’re crispiness doesn’t hold up that well in the ice cream, but the skin is so fried, that the little bits almost dissolve into salty chicken flavored pockets within the ice cream. It’s a good thing, trust me.

Next, Belgium waffles! I recently got a waffle maker, so I have been making a lot of waffles for our family on the weekends. Belgium waffles do differ from a classic waffle. They’re more tender, airy and spongy all at the same time. To achieve that texture, the eggs are separated. Here’s the difference: the egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks and folded into the waffle mix. After a ride in the waffle maker, we have Belgium waffles. But that’s not all. They’re going to take another ride through the oven after chopping them up into croutons. This process will dry them out a little more, and allow them to hold up in the ice cream. The waffle croutons are tossed into the ice cream at the end of the churn along with the fried chicken skin.

Maple brown butter ice cream with bits of salty fried chicken skin and Belgium waffle croutons. Chicken and Waffles Frozbroz style!

Chicken and Waffle Ice Cream

Maple Brown Butter Ice Cream Base:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/3 cup maple sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sea salt

Fried Chicken Skin:
3 chicken skins, removed from thigh
Kosher salt

Belgium Waffle Croutons(This makes more waffles than you need):
2 cups AP Flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Prepare brown butter: Place butter in saute pan and simmer over high heat until brown. Remove immediately and reserve

2. Make ice cream base: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add maple and brown sugar and whisk. Add heavy cream, milk, and salt. Whisk until ingredients are combined.

3. Cook/pasteurize ice cream base: Over medium heat, whisk or stir base continuously. Whisk in reserved brown butter between 110-140 degrees. Keep stirring continuously until temperature reaches 165-170 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Strain base through a fine mesh strainer and put base in a clean container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

4. Prepare crispy chicken skin: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. On a parchment lined baking sheet, lay out chicken skin flat. Salt skins and cover with another piece of parchment paper. Sandwich with another sheet pan on top and place in the oven for 45-50 minutes rotating pan half way through baking. Remove from oven and drain skins on paper towels. On a cutting board, chop skins into tiny pieces and reserve until needed.

5. Prepare Belgium waffles: Whip egg whites to stiff peaks. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together. In a 3rd bowl, mix oil, milk and egg yolks and vanilla. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and then fold in whipped egg whites. Prepare waffles according to waffle makers manufactures instructions.

6. Prepare waffle croutons: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 1-2 waffles into 1/2 inch pieces. Place pieces on sheet pan and bake in oven for 10-15 minutes until crunchy on the outside. Cool and reserve until needed.

7. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. At the end of churning, add in chopped chicken skin and waffle croutons. Place ice cream in airtight container and freeze.

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/27/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

March 19, 2015

Sour Cream with Fresh Walnut Preserves

This week’s flavor was built around this fresh walnut preserve I found a few weeks ago made by Harvest Song. I stumbled across it hidden among a bunch of other specialty jams, sauces, etc. – and plucked it without hesitation. I’ve toyed with the idea of nut preserves before, but never actually found it in true form, and never made with fresh (green) whole nuts.

The walnuts are preserved while they are green and fresh, in a simple syrup made of sugar and lemon juice. Left with their shell on, the walnuts look a lot like olives in this state. They still taste like walnuts, but very sweet – with a flavor that tastes a lot like molasses. The texture is semi soft – most of the walnut crunch has faded but there is still enough there that they are not mushy or soggy. Hard to explain exactly, but reminded me of a nut candy. I had to make ice cream with them, and decided to pair them with a tangy sour cream ice cream base.

The walnuts were chopped into smaller pieces and then added back into their syrup in preparation for being added into the ice cream. They still look kind of like olives.

For the ice cream base I chose to use our sour cream base, which provides a foundational flavor very much resembling a traditional cheesecake. We’re a big fan of Westby sour cream – and for this recipe I typically use a light version to keep the ice cream from getting too rich. It’s hard to go wrong with these flavors.

The result is a rich and tangy sour cream ice cream laced with chunks of molasses tinged, freshly preserved walnuts.

Sour Cream with Fresh Preserved Walnut

Ingredients:

2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Light Sour Cream (I prefer light sour cream for this recipe)
3/4 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 C Fresh Walnut Preserve, walnuts chopped and added back to syrup

Instructions for ice cream:

Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk until sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, sour cream and salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated.

Place ice cream base in a pot over medium heat, stirring continuously. Continue to heat mixture until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat. Cool the ice cream base to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes) and then place in a container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add walnut preserve to ice cream in last 5 minutes of the churning process. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. Then, enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/20/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

March 10, 2015

Irish Whiskey Caramel

Next week is St. Patrick’s Day, so in usual fashion, we thought we would make a celebratory ice cream flavor. We make a lot of caramel’s for swirling into our ice creams. A good amount of those caramels have booze in them. And of those boozy caramels, the majority have Irish whiskey in them; it’s a favorite. One thing that we don’t make a lot of is caramel ice cream though. So this week, that’s just what we’re going to do. In celebration of the upcoming holiday, we’re going to spike it with one of our favorites, 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey. This week’s flavor – Irish Whiskey Caramel

To start our ice cream, we are going to caramelize sugar (just as if we were going to make a caramel) to swirl into the ice cream. A small amount of water is added to the sugar and it’s brought to a boil. During the boiling process, the sugar begins to caramelize. When the sugar becomes a deep amber color, we add the cream.

After the cream, we add our milk, eggs, salt, and pasteurize the entire thing. The caramel ice cream base is cooled and a wee bit of whiskey is added; not to much, as too much alcohol will keep the ice cream from freezing properly. At this point, the ice cream is ready to churn, but first we are going to make a whiskey caramel to incorporate into the ice cream just before packaging. Because the caramel is so concentrated with sugar, we will be able to incorporate enough whiskey to give this flavor the boozy kick it needs. The caramel is made in the same style as our caramel ice cream, but instead of adding milk and eggs after the cream, we just add salt. Once cooled, whiskey is added. The caramel is swirled into the ice cream just before packaging.

A rich bite of caramel ice cream infused with 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey. Come celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with us!

Irish Whiskey Caramel

ice cream:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar, white granulated
2 Tablespoons water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey

caramel:
1 cup sugar, white granulated
2 Tablespoons water
3/4-1 cup heavy cream
2-3 Tablespoons 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey

Instructions:

1. Prepare the ice cream base: In a heavy bottomed pan, with sides at least 4 inches high, add sugar and water and bring to a boil. As soon as the sugar turns an amber color, remove from heat immediately. Add heavy cream and whisk vigorously until incorporated. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, crack eggs into bowl and whisk fully. Add milk and salt, and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Now, start whisking the caramel that you set aside, and slowly add the egg/milk mixture to the caramel as you whisk vigorously. Once incorporated, heat over medium heat, whisking or stirring continuously until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Stir in teaspoon of whiskey, place in a container, and cover and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Prepare the caramel: In a heavy bottomed pan, with sides at least 4 inches high, add sugar and water and bring to boil. Do NOT STIR at this point or the caramel will become grainy. As soon as the sugar turns an amber color, remove from heat immediately. Add heavy cream and whisk vigorously until incorporated. Stir in sea salt and cool. Once cool, stir in whiskey. Reserve for ice cream.

4. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Empty ice cream into an air tight container and pour some of the caramel over the top. Lightly stir the caramel into the ice cream. You can eat immediately as soft serve, but we would recommend freezing in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. The flavors will continue to develop and change over the next few days. Enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/13/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

March 5, 2015

Roasted Banana with Honey and Salted Walnuts

We don’t make enough banana ice cream. That’s the truth. It’s just so dang good. This week’s flavor is a deconstructed version of my favorite banana bread recipe and it really is banana bread incarnate in ice cream form. Maybe you don’t like banana flavored things, and for that I pray for you. Or maybe you just don’t like walnuts with your bananas, and while I believe you are completely wrong, I forgive you. Or you have nut allergies, and I am very sorry for you. For everyone else, enjoy.

The process begins with the bananas. Similar to making banana bread, bananas are best for this recipe when they are very ripe to overripe. However, for roasting purposes you’re better off with bananas that are not so ripe they are mush. The bananas are chopped, tossed in a bit of melted butter, dusted with brown sugar and roasted to caramelization heaven.

Once caramelized, the bananas are pureed with bit of milk. The puree is added to a brown sugar ice cream base with a hint of vanilla.

The walnuts are roasted briefly on a sheet pan with a bit of butter, salted well and added in the last few minutes of the churn. The honey is layered at the end. Make sure to use quality honey – it makes all the difference in the world. We have a lot of great honey in the midwest, and for this flavor we used Ames Farm.

The result is seriously one of my favorite flavors we’ve made in awhile. It’s full of rich roasted banana flavor, accented by a buttery, salty crunch from the walnuts and a bright sweet kick here and there from the honey swirl. Pick up a pint at our kitchen this weekend!

Roasted Banana with Honey and Salted Walnut Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 Ripe Bananas
2 Tablespoons Butter, melted
1 Cup Walnuts
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2Cup Honey
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar plus more for dusting bananas
2 Eggs
2 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

1. Prepare the walnuts: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Toss 1 cup of walnuts with 1 tablespoon of melted butter and spread on sheet pan. Generously sprinkle 1teaspoon of salt over the walnuts and place in oven for 5 minutes. Remove, set aside and let cool. Once cool, place walnuts in freezer bag or container and freeze until ready to go in ice cream.

2. Prepare the banana ice cream: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop bananas into 1/2 inch chunks and toss with a the melted butter until coated. Place on sheet pan and dust with brown sugar. Place in oven and roast for approx 10-15 minutes or until bananas are starting to carmelize. Puree with the one cup of whole milk you will be using for the ice cream base and set aside.

Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add brown sugar and whisk until sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, banana puree, vanilla and salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add walnuts in last 5 minutes of the churning process. Place the ice cream into container and swirl in the honey. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. Then, enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/6/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!